


Oh Cold Emptiness, I Believe in You Now

by PeterTDuende



Category: Orbit Ever After (2013)
Genre: Child Loss, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Married Couple, Outer Space, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:41:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26296582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeterTDuende/pseuds/PeterTDuende
Summary: It'd been two weeks since they'd lost Nigel. Two weeks. Two silent weeks of them all trying not to feel a thing.Based on the 2013 DUST short film "Orbit Ever After" starring Thomas Brodie-Sangster.





	Oh Cold Emptiness, I Believe in You Now

  
  
It'd been two weeks since they'd lost Nigel. Two weeks. Two silent weeks of them all trying not to feel a thing.

When Sophie finally broke down one morning, it'd been enough for Marshall and Grandpa to do so as well. It was the first time each of them had experienced unnatural, premature loss. It was breaking them.

A week after that, on a night when everyone should've been asleep, Sophie wasn't. She kept her gaze on one of the windows, looking out at the white-blue that was Earth. Earth. Their constant neighbor. The Blue Unknown. The men and Nigel had all often jokingly spoken of the possibility of life on Earth.

' _Nonsense_ ,' she'd always say, and leave them to their laughter.

Tonight there was no laughter. Laughter was a foreign idea now.

Sophie snuggled close to Marshall's warm, wiry form. His breath caught in his sleep with her movement but he snored once and went on dreaming.

Marshall Crook. She'd married this man seventeen years ago. Seventeen years of existing all day and night in the same pod as this man. There hadn't been any love, not in the general sense of the word. But there had been an instant mutual understanding. They'd be companions for life, as things should be. There was no time for love or anything beyond sensible thought.

Sophie traced the line of Marshall's shoulder. It was so knobby that it could be clearly felt through his thin shirt. She traced his shoulder and allowed her mind to drift, thinking thoughts that she usually would've called senseless.

Another child. Marshall and she could try for another child. It wasn't as if they'd purposefully not had another besides Nigel, but that had been how things had turned out. They'd had Nigel sixteen years ago. He'd been enough. If more had come along they would have been enough too. But now that she and Marshall had none…Sophie clutched at the cloth of Marshall's shirt and shut her eyes tightly.

It was just the three of them now. Sophia. Marshall. Marshall's senile father. The nearest child was their neighbor's and not theirs. Sophie had never dreamed she'd have an empty nest. She'd always known that once Nigel married his wife and eventual children would live in this pod. The girl always went to her husband's home, just as Sophie had done. But you can't have a daughter-in-law and grandchildren without a son.

A hot tear eked out from between Sophie's eyelashes, and she sobbed for what she hoped was the last time for the rest of her life. Her sob was loud. Too loud. Marshall stiffened with a huff rolled over to face her. Once his eyes could see clearer in the dark and he'd fully woken up he wrapped his arm around his shivering wife. He pressed his lips to the top of her head, his stubble scratching her scalp through the thinning barrier of her hair. "Sophie." He breathed her name, and his hot breath flooded over her. She imagined it warmed her to her toes. She snuggled closer to him and his embrace tightened.

"Can we try for another one?"

There was a quiet moment that seemed to stretch as vast as the expanse of space before Marshall replied.

"Yeah." They both relaxed as the weight of their grief seemed to lighten to something insubstantial before it completely rose off of their shoulders and disappeared. "Yeah, we can."

Everything would be alright.

Everything _was_ alright.

**Author's Note:**

> Written by Peter T. Duende / 1-31-20


End file.
